


Cabin fever

by Coldpep (Deroska)



Category: Twin Peaks
Genre: Oneshot, Wintertime, as close to canon as possible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 11:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20388976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deroska/pseuds/Coldpep
Summary: How did the pictures with Audrey and Laura in Winter come to be?





	Cabin fever

**Author's Note:**

> This is my part for the WONDERFULXSTRANGE exchange ! If I'm honest, I wanted to do all the prompts because they were all wonderful but only had time for this one. Thank you for all the prompts, @doesnt-own-a-sportscoat ! I hope you somewhat enjoy this !

“Here. You’ll need them.”

Audrey handed Laura a white woolen hat and blue mittens. The threads on top of the hat seemed like they’d fall off if she grabbed at them, yet she appreciated the gesture. Judging by the size and the soft lingering smell on them they were undesired clothing pieces of Audrey’s.

“Thanks, Audrey.”

“You can keep ‘em if you want.”

Laura smiled warmly, and not knowing what else to do in the silence between them, she promptly closed the door behind her as she went in her room, leaving Audrey waiting. She leaned on the door and stood still for a bit before moving, relaxing and savouring the moments where she didn’t have to be everyone’s Laura.

“Laura! C’mon, we gotta leave!” 

Audrey softly but audibly stomped once on the floor.

Laura was quickly getting her fill of antidepressant as she’d thought of it to be. She hid the cocaine away in a loosened board of the cabin, under her bed. 

“Finally!” 

As she got out, she found Ben walking towards them. 

“Girls! Looking good this morning!” 

“Thanks” 

Laura knew that the way he meant it was how dads mean to tell their daughters that they’re the most beautiful girls there are in school, and that they should not worry about their appearance, yet she no longer could take such compliments. And seeing by how Audrey looked at her from the side, she realized Audrey couldn’t either. Not when Ben meant his compliments mostly, if not always, for Laura. 

“Today is a day we fill our lungs with fresh mountain air!” 

Audrey sighed, rolled her eyes and motioned towards the pines, the snow, the ice-cold breeze outside that awaited them. 

“Today girls, we’ll take a hike towards-“ 

Ben Horne dramatically pointed at a faraway mountain peak. 

“that -wonderful- destination.” 

Ben breathed in, then faced Laura with feigned concern in his eyes. 

“I think your father can’t make it today, Laura. He hasn’t gotten any better from his cold. But worry not, I will treat you like my own daughter for as long as I have to.” 

“Yeah right. If he treated you like me you wouldn’t be getting half the attention you’re getting right now.” 

“Audrey.” 

“Do we have to hike for that long? It looks miles away!” 

“-Audrey.-” 

“Fine. I get it. At least uncle Jerry’s not here.” 

Laura snickered, but instantly regretted it as Audrey glared at her, not finding any of it funny. Laura felt bad for having been misunderstood, she’d thought Audrey’s comments were amusing.

Audrey was pretty, rich, and seemed like she had a lot of interesting things going on in her life. Laura had been meaning to befriend her, yet it seemed as if there was always something to keep them apart. More often than not it was Benjamin, sparking endless jealousy in her by paying more attention to Laura.  
Yet Laura knew that she had nothing to be jealous of. Nothing that she could let Audrey know though, the fortress around herself was too sturdy for that. She wouldn’t have built a wall around herself for it to only break down at the slightest hint of a budding friendship. 

Audrey huffed and started walking. 

Laura followed her soon after, with Ben trailing behind her. 

The cabin they were staying in was owned by Ben, along with multiple others in the vicinity. The Horne family vacationed here nearly every winter to go skiing, and sometimes seal contracts with the next company that would make it rain in more money for their family. Despite the endless parties that took place in such occasions, all cabins seemed spiffy and clean.

“So. Laura. Have you had any luck with the boys at school yet? Audrey’s told me you’re dating football-sweetheart Bobby.” 

“Yeah, I am…” 

Boys again. Laura couldn’t believe how there was nothing else in anyone’s mind while talking to her. 

“How is he?” 

“He’s… nice. He can get jealous easily though.” 

Finishing off her sentence with a fool-proof charming smile, Ben chuckled softly, content with her reply. Good. It seemed that with all her practice, her charms had worked yet again, flawlessly. 

“Oh it’s easy to get …overprotective… of you, Laura. Don’t be too harsh on him.” 

Ben grinned at her, then looked on to Audrey in front of them. Laura thought of not having had enough cocaine for the length of this trip. 

“Audrey! Don’t walk so far off ahead!” 

Having gotten no reply, he leapt in a few steps forward to reach her, leaving Laura behind. Laura hoped Audrey would continue making a scene to get her father’s attention, so she’d get left alone. 

Now being able to enjoy the scene, she looked at the swaying firs around her. Such motion in the trees felt hypnotizing, it reminded her of the times she’d get lost in them, thinking time and again that she wouldn’t come back. 

The snow satisfyingly giving in with her steps, accompanied by a soft crunchy sound, relaxed her. Her body told her that she’d needed to get away for a long time, yet in spirit she stayed in her room, writing away her sorrows in her diary.

“You’ll have to excuse Audrey, she’s being… a bit difficult today.”

Without Laura noticing, Ben had appeared by her side again.

“That’s okay… I expected something like that.”

Ben slowed his steps and put his hand on her shoulder, with a pensive air.

“Could you talk to her? I think you two could get along fairly well.”

Talk to Audrey. Sure. Talking to Laura was the last thing she probably needed at the moment, what she needed wasn’t just any kind of attention but her father’s attention.

“Heh. If I’m lucky your hard-working spirit will rub off on her.”

Laura looked on a bit worriedly, with a sense of vertigo because of having to delve into someone else’s problems again. She sighed, and fastened her step, Ben patting her back as she left.

“Hi…”

Audrey’s entire being communicated her to leave. Laura waited a little and walked by her side, attentive of any shift in mood that could mean that she surrendered to her presence, opening up for a chat.  
Yet none of that showed. Laura tried again.

“It’s… sad that Johnny won’t get to be with us. He seemed heartbroken when he saw us leave.”

Audrey’s expression softened, yet turned defensive, awkward in her position.

“I...I remember the first trip we made without him. I felt so bad, there’s nothing more distancing than...telling somebody that they can’t take part in activities with you anymore.”

After having said that, Audrey tensed up further, her brother was a difficult topic for her. She clearly cared about him, Laura felt like she’d cheated for having brought him up. She’d gotten the desired reaction out of Audrey.  
Laura knew that Audrey’s sole positive affinity towards her was based on her thankfulness that she helped her brother, all she had to do for her to turn around was mention him.

“You do know I admire you for taking care of him...right?”

Audrey’s usually piercing gaze seemed distant, Laura listened attentively.

“Everyone keeps saying that they can’t handle him yet… I’ve yet to hear something like that coming from you.”

As Laura chuckled in relief from the tension having left the air, Audrey smiled at her.

“Johnny’s really kind, it isn’t much of a task for me to be around him.”

Johnny wanted her to do things like read books to him, or compliment him when he shot the colorful buffalos with his arrows in his garden. It was true, all of that was much easier than the average problem Laura would be used to deal with in her daily life. She could talk to him, assured that her words wouldn’t lead her to something dangerous.

A gust of wind enveloped them, snow rose from the mountain and touched their cold faces. Covering themselves, Audrey and Laura then looked at each other, a sense of fleeting familiarity washing away from them as quickly as the wind passed by. 

Audrey walked slower for her father to catch up to her, and once they were reunited Audrey didn’t leave his side. Ben seemed slightly annoyed, and looked back at how they’d left Laura behind but said nothing. Laura felt content, yet still a bit lonely.

Laura had embraced that loneliness would stick with her no matter where she went, no matter how long she’d think it would be gone. With time that realisation didn’t feel easier to bear, despite being familiarized with that thought over and over. 

Only in dreams could she escape to a place where she was content and understood, yet lately she’d been plagued by nightmares that didn’t even show a glimpse of such happiness to then take it away. The nightmares would simply be about the woods, Bob, and things she’d rather not think about while awake or even high.

“Dad, you’re going the wrong way-”

“Don’t worry Audrey, I know what I’m doing.”

Benjamin and Audrey we’re looking at a map, before dividing paths. Laura took a single glance at the map, and after re-checking the destination with Ben she knew the answer.

Laura found the looks Ben and Audrey gave her funny. Both of them had a strong sense of wanting to seem like reliable people in their own ways, which is why they took their defeat rather personally. Even though Audrey had been right, she still found it to be a defeat that she couldn’t convince her father of her conviction on her own. She very clearly strived to be better than her father at this skill.

“Alright- let’s go.”

They kept walking, farther and farther from their shacks, walking so far away it was pointless to turn back. Laura felt a bit intimidated by this fact, she couldn’t remember the time she’d been that far away from civilization. It felt empty out here, she thought, life was what kept her going but also what made her drown. 

Audrey and Ben had started a cold conversation, fitting to their snowy surroundings. Ben replied almost with one word always, a jarring contrast to his usual flowery sentence formulations. Audrey tried very hard to appear like nothing about their conversation hurt her at all, brushing off any complaints by her father and always trying to come out on top. Similarly, Ben tried maintaining his high position and rejected any attempts at getting to him from Audrey.  
Laura knew that the most attention Audrey would get was when she did something bad, which is why she’d just accustomed herself to acting that way towards everyone around her. Dismissive, mischievous, distant.  
Seemingly having had enough of her, Ben called Laura over to them.

“Why are you so far away? We’re all walking together, nobody should get left behind.”

He said that, but Laura knew he’d have no problem leaving Audrey by herself at this point.  
Surely, Ben thought that he’d tried everything he could with Audrey. And everything he could to improve himself- he didn’t think of himself as a bad person, despite being constantly involved in dubious business. He took pride in it, it made him feel strong, it made him feel needed and wanted, something he couldn’t do on his own. Laura wondered if it’d be possible for him to change, for him to feel alright without having his pedestal of money and blood to sit on. She wondered if Audrey knew, or ever thought about that aspect of her father.

Despite how exhausting such thoughts were, other people’s problems were an efficient distraction from her own problems. Although she’d nearly given up on the image of a pure girl that put everyone else before herself, it didn’t erase the fact that the only way she felt any sort of gratification was when she’d pleased someone else.

Working with Shelly and Norma on the Meals on Wheels program felt like a wonderful façade telling her that there was a future for her and that she'd continue working alongside others for good for the rest of her life. So did working with the pastor, or working with and for Johnny.  
Yet it drained her. She'd always feared the fact that being a good person wasn't a sustainable way of living, and that it would catch up to her someday. Now, facing Bob and parts of herself she'd rather have gone, she doubted she could go on. 

There was one figure of hope and comfort she'd see rarely in her dreams, a man in a black suit with a fond smile that did not ask anything from her. She felt drawn to him, she couldn't remember the last person who'd given her that sort of understanding expression. Because there hadn't been any. 

She did not exactly love him, but she felt the connection between them. Something soft and distant, nostalgic as if he'd appeared in her dreams for as long as Bob had without her noticing. 

Laura put her gloved hands to her face and breathed out into the little confined space she'd made with her fingers, warming herself up. Audrey's perfume on the gloves somehow calmed her, she was reminded of the very reason she was unwilling to give up her good nature. Why she was unwilling to give up on Donna, James, Bobby and Ronette. Love. She still hoped to find love.

“We’re here !”

Laura looked up, and found herself before a small log cabin. It looked nearly abandoned, nowhere near as pretty as the ones they’d stayed in. Laura wondered why they’d taken such a long hike to get here, but her question disappeared once she looked at how Audrey and Ben responded to the cabin.  
The sense of familiarity, nostalgia in which they looked at it told her that it had been a pivotal part of their respective childhoods.

“It’s nearly broken down… I haven’t sent anyone to check up on this place. I’d nearly … forgotten about it until your mother found pictures from when I was here with your uncle Jerry.”

Audrey stood in silence.

“...in such an unfortunate area… all these...trees grew around it.”

Audrey chuckled and touched a pillar near the entrance.

“Yeah. Giving the trees the fault for your neglect.”

“Well, before it goes away, let’s give it one last tribute.”

Ben took out his camera and pointed it at Laura and Audrey, the first picture showing them a bit taken aback by the suddenness of the flash. Laura and Audrey then smiled, with Ben further encouraging them. 

When Audrey did a V, a peace sign with her fingers, Laura had to laugh while imitating her because with her mittens covering her fingers it wasn’t at all visible.  
Laura thought that it was heartwarming that at that moment Audrey didn’t feel very distant from her, even closing the gap and putting bunny ears on her over her woolen hat. It seemed that seeing this cabin and their chat before had lightened up her mood.

Once Ben was satisfied with all the pictures he’d taken, he gave the cabin one last longing look and then became his usual, cheery self, seemingly unimpacted by the course of events. He informed Audrey and Laura that he’d taken this path for this cabin only, and that they wouldn’t actually walk to a far away mountain peak. Audrey seemed thoughtful, but relieved of now getting to walk back.

“Say goodbye Audrey. We won’t be seeing this sight again.”

Making their way back, looking at the cabin again Laura felt somehow privileged to have seen a part of the Horne’s life that impacted them that much. Although it looked sad all broken down, she thought that even such a place having had such an impact on them was extraordinary.


End file.
